Laura García-Caro lets the continental bronze slip away at the finish line

In athletics – and in general in the world of sports – you cannot trust yourself for a single second. The Spanish athlete has proof of this. Laura García-Carowho during this Friday afternoon let out the bronze medal in it last meter of the test 20 kilometers walk. The Andalusian went from celebrating the victory to showing all her possible unease after the episode experienced in the European Athletics Championships which is celebrated in Rome.

García-Caro had a great race, very close at the head, as a clear candidate for the podium, but in the final stretch, with the entrance to the marvelous Olympic Stadium from the Italian capital, did not realize that the Ukrainian Liudmila Olianovska It was relatively close. So much so that just a few meters from entering the finish line he managed to overtake her and, given the Spanish woman’s evasion, take the continental bronze.

The Andalusian, from 29 yearshe even collected one Spanish flag to face the last part of the route on the stadium track, savoring the greatest success of his career. It was there, when she raised her arm, smiling and excited, that she saw Olianovska passing to her right, just two steps from the goal. “I didn’t trust myself“García-Caro herself insisted later in the mixed zone.

?THE UNGRATEFUL IMAGE OF THE DAY!

Laura García-Caro is left without a medal just a few meters from the finish line.

She was already celebrating the bronze when the Ukrainian Olyanovska passed her on the same finish line.

?His face in the replay says it all. pic.twitter.com/4vvGAegQKN

— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) June 7, 2024

Lifelong lesson for García-Caro

“In the last lap to the stadium was quite busted. The truth is that I gave it all”, he explained with resignation and emotion. “I tried to change the pace as soon as possible because I knew that a final sprint It wasn’t going to be the best scenario for me,” he confessed. García-Caro turned his head several times in the last 300 meters to see the distance he had with his rival. “I took him 50 meters And I thought that sprinting with everything I had left wouldn’t catch me“he added. Reality is very far from that reach. But the lesson will never be forgotten.

Finally, the victory went to the Italian Antonella Palmisano, which gave the best possible start to his particular “tifosi”, who did not stop encouraging him throughout the test. The Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020 won with a time of 1h 28m 08sahead of his compatriot Valentina Traplettiwho signed a double with 1h 28m 37s.

In addition to García-Caro, the women’s 20km walk event also featured the presence of the Catalan Cristina Montesinos, who was sixth after struggling for most of the race in the leading positions. For her part, the also Catalan Rachel Gonzalez It was ninth. The two individual places to compete in the 20km march of Paris 2024 are awarded to Maria Perezdouble world champion in Budapest 2023, already Cristina Montesinoschampion of Spain 2024. Third place will be played between the team itself Garcia-Caro and Gonzalez, and this result in Rome could be decisive. Everything will be known in a few days.

The rest of the European Championship day

Despite the bittersweet episode of García-Caro, the Spanish delegation rests in Rome with its first metal behind the opening day of the European. She has achieved it Martha Garcia in the test of the 5,000 meters. The woman from Palencia had already amazed this winter by beating the national records of 3,000 and 5,000 meters indoor and this Friday he added another national record by improving with a mark of 14:44.04 the record of Julia Vaquero of nineteen ninety six. García ended like this third a test where the final sprint was also the protagonist.

Another of the proper names of the day was that of Belén Toimilwho arrived in Rome very motivated and eager to demonstrate that she should have attended two previous appointments from which she was left out due to the debatable “criterion of excellence” of the RFEA. The Galician shot putter finished in a creditable fifth position with mark of 18.43.